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LONDON (MarketWatch) â" U.S. stock futures pointed lower Thursday after heavy losses for many Asian and European markets and as investors awaited earnings from the likes of Kraft Foods Inc. and Sprint Nextel Corp.

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U.S. stocks ended the day mixed on Wednesday as a late rally pushed the Dow
/quotes/comstock/10w!i:dji/delayed
(DJIA12,240,
+6.74,
+0.06%)
Â into positive territory, while downbeat comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke weighed on other indexes.

European stock markets were lower across the board Thursday, with banks leading the fall. Spainâs IBEX 35 index was the worst performer, losing around 2%.

Asian markets also closed mostly lower, including a 2.1% drop for the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong on worries about Chinese policy tightening, with energy stocks among the most heavily sold.

Investors await weekly jobless claims data, due at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time, with economists expecting claims to dip slightly to 410,000 from 415,000.

The dollar strengthened, rising 0.4% against the yen to Â¥82.68, while the euro dropped 0.6% to $1.3642.

Among other stocks in focus, shares in Whole Foods Market Inc.
/quotes/comstock/15*!wfmi/quotes/nls/wfmi
(WFMI53.75,
+0.84,
+1.59%)
Â rose nearly 10% in premarket trading after the grocer lifted its 2011 forecasts for profit and sales.

In other news, executives at Google Inc.
/quotes/comstock/15*!goog/quotes/nls/goog
(GOOG616.50,
-1.88,
-0.30%)
, Facebook Inc. and other firms have held low-level talks with Twitter Inc. over a possible acquisition, with some potential suitors valuing the business in the neighborhood of $8 billion to $10 billion, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal citing people familiar with the matter.

Other companies that may see active trading Thursday include Kraft Foods
/quotes/comstock/13*!kft/quotes/nls/kft
(KFT31.24,
+0.11,
+0.35%)
, which is expected to report fourth-quarter earnings of 47 cents a share, and Sprint Nextel
/quotes/comstock/13*!s/quotes/nls/s
(S4.35,
+0.04,
+0.93%)
, which is seen reporting a loss of 30 cents a share.

PepsiCo Inc.
/quotes/comstock/13*!pep/quotes/nls/pep
(PEP64.42,
+0.25,
+0.39%)
Â is also due to report its latest results, with analysts on average forecasting a profit of $1.04 a share.